by Abigail Owen
The brand hadn’t shown up on the back of her mother’s neck, the final step in the process, and something that could take minutes or even months to happen. No one knew what triggered that brand or why the timing mattered.
“And Pytheios killed your father?”
She sat up straighter. “Yes.” Though her mother had refused to tell them exactly how, claiming talking about it to be too painful.
His gaze turned speculative. “And because the bond wasn’t in place, she didn’t die.”
“Yes.” Once mates were branded, if one died, they both died.
Another heavy silence settled between them. “Is that why you ran from me?” His words came out almost…kind.
Kasia lifted her gaze to find him regarding her more curiously than kindly. Maybe she’d imagined the kindness. “One of the reasons, yes.”
He crossed his arms. “Are you going to run again?”
No. The thought punched through her. Kasia paused, trying to figure out why her gut reaction would be adamantly against leaving this man when logic told her she should run at the first opportunity. Not that she’d tell him that.
“I haven’t decided,” she murmured instead.
If he could find her, so could others. Possibly others who’d be worse.
“Why’s that?” he asked.
She gave him a direct look. “I’d rather the devil I know than the devil I don’t.” Did he flinch? Before he could comment, Kasia kept going. “I have mixed feelings about it. Some tell me to trust you, and some tell me not to.”
“Trust me?”
She almost laughed at the deep doubt in those two words, not that she blamed him. “Yes.”
“Word to the wise…”
She felt that gaze again, almost like a caress, and her skin prickled. What was wrong with her?
“Don’t give your trust too easily in this world. More often than not, people like me are out to harm you or use you.”
“Aren’t you trying to stop me from running away?” she pointed out. “You might want to work on your sales pitch.”
Brand frowned, and she got the distinct impression he’d surprised himself with his honesty, and not in a good way. Interesting.
“Besides,” she continued. “Dr. Oppenheim wasn’t out to harm me or use me, and I don’t think you are, either. Your king, maybe, but not you.”
“Dr. Oppenheim called my people with info on you. That’s how I found you.” Brand flattened his lips, clamping them over what she suspected would be tougher words. “I’m sure we’re not the only people she called.”
Despite the small flare of disappointment about the doctor, Kasia leaned back on her hands and swung her feet, even while she watched him closely. “I do know some things about you.” She stood, intending to make her point, though now she was uncomfortably aware of how close that move brought her to him in the tiny space. Why’d they make this room so small? “You want to know what you were doing in every vision I’ve had of you?”
His shoulders stiffened, his biceps stretching out his T-shirt a little more. “What?”
“Protecting. Sometimes me, sometimes others. Big ways. Small ways. But always protecting.”
Brand jerked, though his expression didn’t change one iota.
Kasia kept pushing. “Look at how you handled our first meeting. Your instinct was to help me.”
Now he scowled. “My first instinct was to fuck you. Long and hard.”
They both froze, gazes locked, as his harsh words lingered in the air between them. If he’d meant to shock her, prove her wrong, all he’d managed to do was give her ideas. Ones that aligned way too closely with those fantasies she’d indulged in about him all year long.
Wrong, wrong, wrong ideas, but her body tingled in all the right places. However, he’d also hit on the fact that confused her the most. He was a dragon shifter, a creature she had to avoid, someone she shouldn’t put her trust in regardless of the visions.
After a long, uncomfortable stretch of silence, she realized how carefully he was holding himself. From touching her? She cleared her throat.
“You won’t hurt me,” she insisted.
“You’re right. I’m going to take you to Ladon, then you’re no longer my problem.”
Kasia managed to contain her flinch as his words struck closer to her heart than she expected, the ache sharper than it should be given their short acquaintance and the roles each had to play.
The man must have no heart to so easily sell her off to the highest bidder. Had every single vision she’d had about him been wrong? Because he obviously didn’t give two shits about her. Even if she decided to give this Ladon guy a chance, Brand’s callousness about using her for his own ends, whatever those were, formed a pit in her stomach that wouldn’t go away.
With no warning, the room disappeared, leaving Kasia in a void of darkness, and a backlash of pain jolted her body, like electricity passing through her nerves—heat, then sting. A sensation she’d become all too familiar with this year.
Not now. Please not now.
Another zap raised the fine hairs on her arms. Aw, hell.
She held still, staring into the nothing. “Um, Brand…?”
“Yeah?”
She scrunched up her face. “We have a problem.”
A beat of silence greeted her statement. “Don’t tell me you want to take me up on that fucking long and hard offer, sweetheart. Because I don’t think—”
“No,” she cut him off. “A different problem.”
A rustle reached her ears as he moved her way, his silence suddenly feeling serious. “What problem?”
Kasia held up her hand, warmth already telling her a flame danced from each of her five fingertips.
“What? Now?” Brand demanded.
The apprehension in his voice might’ve been funny if it hadn’t reflected her own. It seemed even big, tough, tattooed dragon shifters got nervous when a woman was about to leap into the freefall of a full-body migraine, only to explode into flames and see visions.
Another wave of torture shuddered through her. “Mmm hmm,” she managed around a whimper. “And fast.”
A low grunt reached her ears. “I feel it,” he said.
Brand could feel her pain? That made no sense.
“How fast?” he asked, before she could question him.
Another stab, and she wrapped her arms around her middle, rocking through the sensations throbbing through her body. Soon everything would hurt—her skin, her brain, her teeth, her insides. Every noise, even a puff of wind, only adding to the agony. “I hope you’re right about being able to control the fire,” she choked out.
Kasia wasn’t even positive she managed to get all those words out intelligibly, because her body took over, sending her into that hazy space between pain and panic.
Vaguely she heard Brand swear a cocktail of curses that would have made her laugh had another wave not hijacked her system. He certainly got creative with the F word.
Without her being aware of his movement, he pulled her down to sit beside him on the edge of the bed. Gently, he turned her toward him and took her face between his hands.
The storm of sensation swirling inside her calmed, just a bit.
How did he do that?
“That’s it,” he murmured. “Just breathe.”
She tried to do as he said. Her world narrowed to a pair of work-roughened hands against her cheeks, steady and comforting.
Then another wave washed over her, and she lost the moment, closing her eyes as she struggled for control. Vaguely, Brand’s groan reached her. She tried to hold her own cry in, but it slipped out from between her lips just the same.
“I’ve got you,” he said between what sounded like gritted teeth.
His hands smoothed down her neck to her shoulders, and just like at the clinic,
his touch reached inside her and soothed part of the sensations overtaking her body, dulling them. As the wave crested and fell, she desperately locked onto his presence again, taking strength from whatever it was about him that gave her relief.
“More,” she managed to squeeze out between panting breaths, wrapping her hands around his wrists, not to pull him away, but to hold his touch to her.
I’m so fucked, she thought she heard him mutter. “Don’t kill me for this.”
What?
He pressed his lips to hers, soft at first, then harder. Kasia gasped as relief swirled through her body along with a sudden blazing need. She opened herself up to him in an instant, and Brand slipped his tongue inside her mouth, tangling with hers in the most delicious way.
At the same time, a pulling sensation captured her attention.
Wait. Was Brand drawing her fire into himself?
But she didn’t have time to process the implications, because he deepened the kiss, obliterating her agony. Whimpering, Kasia threw herself into a sensation unlike any she’d ever experienced. Maybe the pain had addled her perception, but something about Brand’s kisses, being in his arms, felt…right.
Or maybe that was all her X-rated fantasies about the man in her visions kicking in.
Pleasure washed over her, each upsurge growing in intensity. Her body in charge, she hooked an arm around his neck and swung a leg over his lap, straddling him. He grasped her by the hips, helping her rub against the hard rod of his cock. A secret corner of her mind delighted to find him equally into this, into her, in a way that pushed all the right buttons. Though, maybe not in the way she wanted, the way she’d pictured all those times. What she wanted was nothing between them.
No clothes. No questions. No secrets.
She didn’t have time to explore that bit of idiocy, though. With a low groan that sounded more like a growl, Brand backed off, slowing her down, and she opened her mouth to protest, only to gasp as a lance of pain returned.
“I don’t want you to regret going too far when you’re like this,” he said.
She shuddered with her need to run from the pain and return to the pleasure, rubbing against him again, her hardened nipples brushing against his chest through their clothing. “It hurts if you don’t.”
“I know. Me, too.”
Him, too? A dull throb returned, and she let that question go. Instead she took over, kissing him, licking at his lips, toying with his tongue.
Again, the ache receded as wonderful desire eased through her blood.
He lifted the hair off the back of her neck, where a mating brand would show if she mated a dragon, and pressed a kiss just to the side of that spot. That touch sent a sweet warmth rolling through her.
A tingling kicked off at the base of her spine, building and spreading. Usually her vision came on with the worst of the pain, but this was different, better.
She threw her head back and let out a long, keening moan as everything inside her opened up, clearing the way for the images that would come next. Flames erupted from her body in what should have been a conflagration of spectacular proportions, but Brand contained her, his mouth on hers and something both soft and rough wrapping around her like a cocoon, holding the fire inside.
At the same time, images flashed through her mind, like flipping quickly through a picture book, or akin to an old-timey movie, all herky-jerky and hard to decipher. Except this time, instead of pure anguish and terror that usually came with the overwhelming rush, Brand’s touch morphed the pain into a sensation more akin to being buffeted by roaring waves on the ocean, at the mercy of a crushing force greater than herself.
Finally, the vision ebbed as she came up from under the pressure. She blinked as her sight returned, and any remaining flickers receded back into her body. Succumbing to the aftermath, Kasia’s muscles went limp. Exhaustion filled every limb.
She recognized something had her cradled. Forcing her heavy eyelids open, she gasped, arrested first by the golden flames reflected in Brand’s eyes, and then by the massive golden wings folded around both of them.
She should be terrified out of her mind—she lay in the grasp of a dragon. But strangely, terror wasn’t part of her current state of emotional being. Instead, she wrapped her arms around Brand’s neck and laid her forehead against his shoulder, though he tensed underneath her touch. She ignored him as she slowly caught her breath.
A glance down revealed she was still dressed. Relief punched from her lungs in a sharp breath. Somehow, he’d kept the fire from disintegrating her clothes. At least she didn’t have to worry about ending up naked anymore. Thank goodness.
The soft rustle of sound, like the creak of a well-loved leather jacket, and subtle shifting of his body had her directing her gaze upward. He unwrapped his wings from around them, and she tipped her head back to watch in fascination as they seemed to fold back into his body.
“How’d you do that?” she asked, her voice rough and scratchy yet again. Those damned out-of-control flames.
“Do what?” Though his arms still encircled her, he held her more loosely, as though trying to put distance between them that wasn’t there.
“Only have wings.”
He tipped up one shoulder, shifting her grasp so she dropped one hand. More space between them. “Some dragons can control their shift—both what shifts and the size of it. My wings helped contain the explosion.”
Why did she get the impression that detail about shifting only a portion of himself was important, like a rare ability or something? Had Mother ever mentioned it?
He held up a hand, and his fingernails transformed before her eyes, becoming golden claws before he fisted his hands and turned them back into nails. “In my full form, I’d be much larger than this room, so I had to limit my shift.”
“Very cool.”
He choked out a surprised laugh. “Of course you’d think that’s cool.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Granted, she should be totally wigged out about now—sitting in a dragon’s lap casually discussing his shifting abilities after having just shared an intimate, surreal moment. Not to mention the sexual fulfillment bit. Embarrassment, at the very least, should be involved in her current state of mind. However, about six months ago Kasia had given up trying to act like she thought she should.
Brand shook his head, sobering. “What did you see?”
Kasia forced her mind to the flashes she’d witnessed. After the fact, she always had to replay her visions in her mind, drag them from a memory both hazy and patchy, the agonizing sensations in her body during the initial visions doing a bang-up job of keeping the majority of her attention. Her version of a VCR tape in rewind was always hit-and-miss.
This incident had been fast and brief, the images equally brief.
She latched on to a flash of the motel in which they were staying, seen from outside and across the street, she’d guess. Followed by another picture of at least five men bursting into their room. Brand fighting. Her screaming as they dragged her away—so eerie to watch without the sound. And fire. Lots of fire.
She tightened her grip on him, more reflex than conscious thought. “We have to leave. Now.”
She made her sluggish muscles obey and shimmied off his lap. Though landing in a heap at his feet had been a close call, requiring him to scoop her up and deposit her on her less-than-steady feet. Thankfully, they hadn’t unpacked, and she snapped up her backpack, which lay on the ground, teetering with the move.
Her urgency must’ve carried through to her voice and actions. She expected more argument or questions before he acted, but immediately Brand followed suit, grabbing his own backpack, as well as his duffel bag and car keys.
“Wait.” He stopped her as she reached for the door handle.
He moved her to the side and cracked the door. He checked the parking lot beyond, sniffed the air. Now she saw why
he had picked a place with the room door facing outside and on the first floor, rather than an interior hallway or on a different floor. Easier getaway.
As they neared the car, a low growl sounded from the darkened parking lot across the road.
She met Brand’s gaze across the top of the car.
“Move,” he said.
But before she could reach for the handle, Brand spun away, facing two men who’d come up behind him. At the same time, an arm wrapped around her waist. Kasia thrashed as she was lifted off her feet. Whoever had her managed to tuck her under one arm like a football and run.
“Brand!” she yelled.
She tried to curl around the arm holding her to see if Brand had followed, but he was busy dealing with the two men.
One thought entered her mind. She couldn’t let this guy get her into a car. Her mother had always told them that. Death is better than letting them take you.
All that physical training her mother had insisted on kicked in, instinct taking over.
Rather than try to grapple with the man’s iron grip or reach the ground with her feet, Kasia twisted then pushed her feet off his ass, which threw off his balance. Her would-be kidnapper tripped over her limbs, and they both tumbled to the ground.
Gravel tore up the exposed skin of her shoulder as she came down hard.
Ouch. That was going to leave a couple of marks. No time to worry over that, though. Not while the brute was pinning her down with his bulk.
Kasia kicked out, and he gave an oomph as she connected with his sternum. He moved just enough for her to roll out from under him. She hopped to her feet, but so did he. They faced each other.
“Don’t make me do this the hard way,” he warned.
She took in his appearance—hard face, all angles, dark hair cut military style, and big. Really big. “Does that line work with all the girls?” she asked.
Slowly, she started moving away. If she could keep him distracted, she could get some distance. Maybe enough to light a fire and teleport her ass out of here.
